For several months now, three-time Green Party presidential candidate Jil Stein has been facing misdemeanor charges for the alleged assault of a bicycle cop during a pro-Palestine protest on the campus of Washington University last year.
But questions about where exactly on campus the alleged assault occurred have thrown a wrench into the case.
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Last month, St. Louis County prosecutors, who brought the charges, wrote in a court filing that they’d recently discovered that the assault actually occurred in the city and the case should be moved there. Stein’s attorney Joseph Welch filed an objection to the transfer.
Then, last Wednesday, Welch filed a motion seeking to have the whole case dismissed, arguing that the county “lacks the authority to file and prosecute cases in the name of the state except those matters which occur in their own jurisdiction—that is, St. Louis County.” Because the county never had the authority to bring the case in the first place, Welch argues, it was void from the start.
Legal experts say that if the case does move to St. Louis City Circuit Court, either County Prosecuting Attorney Melissa Price Smith’s office could continue handling it or it could be passed off to City Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore, as both offices ultimately represent the state of Missouri. However, these experts said, in all likelihood the case would be handled by Gore, should he take it.
Stein, 74, is a self-described “eco-socialist” who’s drawn anger from Democrats for spoiling the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump. She was in St. Louis in April 2024 and attended a protest on WashU’s campus that ultimately saw 100 arrests. Only Stein and one other individual wound up being charged, for misdemeanor assault and trespass. Those charges were issued this past March.
In May, county prosecutors wrote in court filings that a review of video evidence showed that the incident took place on the city side of the WashU’s Danforth Campus, which straddles the city/county line. According to Chris King, a spokesman for the office, three maps were consulted in the matter—the city’s, the county’s, and the state’s. The county map says the alleged crime happened in the city. The city map says it happened in the county. The state map says it was the city. “We consider the state map to be the tie breaker,” King told SLM at the time.
